Hail, The Krangs All Here

HG Wells said near the end of his famous work that the 'humblest things upon the Earth' were the most powerful. I am inclined to agree, as sometime the smallest simplest models and toys give the most pleasure. One case in point are these tiny toys based on the Turtle's antagonist, the alien Krang. Basically a large brain with vestigal limbs, Krang usually appears in some kind of robotic body or Waldo-armed mechanism to execute his mischiefs. The Lego Teenage Mutant Turtles range issued a net little Krang minifig, in lovely magneta plastic, with slim tentacular appendages and shortly after, as part of the Kinder Surprise range, Ferrero included a beefier, more ferocious looking Krang in their eggs.

 The Kinder Krang has hooped hands to hold guns and other bits and pieces too and ive added a little vascular detail on this model to bring out the crennalations on his pulsing alien brain!

My fascination with alien beings began long ago, but was heavily influenced by the Terence Cuneo paintings for Tell Me Why magazines brief serialisation of War of the Worlds. His lustrous artwork captured the glistening leathery skin and malevolent gaze of the martians perfectly, making for a scary and quite powerful image.

 Other toys capitalised on the motile brain style alien, as featured in B-Movies like 'Fiend without a Face' and 'The Trollenberg Terror'. Being to young to watch them as a child, I caught brief glimpses of the films from behind the couch and recognised their influence in toys later on.

Kelloggs Crater Critters from Sugar Smacks in 1970 were led by a weird tripedal figure with benign smile and pointed crown and the Teachers Pets range of rubber monsters had hideous tentacled creatures slithering about.

 Bubble Gum vending machines had their share of neat creatures such as the boggle eyed 'Man from Mars' and his cyclopean relatives and novelty stores carried pen toppers like this neat pink octopian.

 Probably one of the most profund and disturbing influences on my fragile childhood psyche were the 'Outer Limits' cards, which I received in an old album, containing a full set. The first one was the TV Terror, whose amorphous yellow face scared me witless the first time I saw it, closely followed by the evil looking Zanti Misfits and the hideous Glob!

It was years later that I watched the relevant episodes of the black and white series on dvd and I was seriously disappointed in their actual rendition! 

Since then, toy monsters are more sanitised and accessible such as the Manta Force 'Vile Stinkhorn' which can exude slime through its nostrils, but I have to say that the little Krang figures with their inimical glare, must be up there with the classics.